Wind Vs Wyoming

Wyoming is the largest producer of coal in the United States.

The price of wind produced electricity has been plummeting and continues to plummet.

Wyoming has a lot of wind.

Apparently the market works: Rocky Mountain Power is conducting a massive buildout of wind farms in Wyoming to take advantage of that trend.

The power is cheaper than coal the moment the turbines begin to turn and the cost of building new capacity and maintaining existing capacity is much less than coal.

The technological and economic granularity of a wind farm wins hands down.

That would seem to show that the markets have been given a self-solving equation and the markets have responded in a rational manner – just like it says in all those textbooks.

But wait.

The Wyoming legislature is going to pass a wind electricity tax that will make much lees expensive, much more environment friendly wind power non competitive with coal.

Another sham from the great free market crowd.

I predict a secondary level of sham to follow: when called on the merits of their tax the legislators of Wyoming (the folks who want to exterminate wolves and grizzly bears) will rise up all armed with fiery swords.

“We must save the Western Meadowlark and others from imminent extinction from the blades of turbines.”

It’s great when serious economists, legislators and avowed conservatives get so behind the environment.